i heart Brandi Carlile!

Not only do I heart Brandi Carlile, but I got to see her in concert! My friend Abby and I went and it was a true girls night out as it brought me back to those good ol' youthful years of concert going.
We landed about 5 rows back from the stage. It almost seemed too easy, but there we were. It was a huge crowd and I was surprised to feel like a was in a mosh pit for the first time in years. Luckily, Brandi's music doesn't exactly invite moshing so we were able to stay on our feet. You meet some interesting drunk people when you're standing just inches from them for four hours.

By the end of the night I realized that I'm way too old to stand for that long, in a way too crowded, hot concert hall with crazy lights blaring in my eyes. AND on top of that, in my excitement of going to the concert, I had completely forgotten to eat dinner. Duh. BUT I would do it all again for Brandi. She sounds just as good, if not better than on her cds. She has such a unique and cool voice. Fun, down to earth personality and she really appreciates a great crowd. It was all worth it.

Check her out:

Happy Brithday Ethan!

I can't believe I have a 7 year old!The night of his birthday we had a fun little dinner celebration with grandma and grandpa along with some home videos of Ethan. Forget pizza, what 7 year old wouldn't request pulled pork as his birthday dinner. He loves that stuff. Funny kid.
Then today was the big day for the birthday party with 8 of his friends. I'm sure you can imagine the craziness, sometimes chaotic, but fun times these boys had together. (And as for me, I'm glad it was just an hour and a half and that we only do parties every other year). It was a fun party filled with pizza, cake and a clever treasure hunt (that Chad made) where they found bubble gum for the bubble gum blowing contest, bags to fill with pinata candy, a pinata and silly string, which would later be used to attack Chad and our friend Justin (thanks again Justin for being our moving target!). Not to mention a lot of sugar!

Who says you can't do outdoor activities for winter birthdays??

And then there's that thing that gave me the most pleasure: Making THE CAKE.
This is what Ethan did when I asked him to 'look like you're in aw...' Of course I didn't capture the original moment cause of low batteries. But I promise, this was very similar to his original reaction. :) He was quite pleased with his cake. Admittedly I was a bit disheartened when I had to actually cut it up and serve it.

Happy birthday Ethan!!! WE LOVE YOU!!

Post New Year's Blues

Now that Christmas break is over this is what it's come to: A big case of insomnia. Ethan spent the two weeks of Christmas break staying up way too late and sleeping in way too long, and now he's all out of whack. It took him 3 hours to fall asleep the other night. Two hours last night. And so far, as I'm writing this we're at about an hour. I caught Chad and Ethan reading together last night in efforts to get him to sleep. It worked!... two hours later.

Here goes the history of how he became an insomniac. We spent Christmas in California with Chad's fam. It was a smorgasbord of fun, eating, playing games, Christmas shopping, more eating, opening gifts, seeing friends, playing with cousins, late nights and more!

He was quite happy with his spoils this year, although at one point he did question why Santa dare not give him an Xbox like he had asked for. Guess what? Its all about teaching Ethan the true meaning of Christmas next year. I'm open to any suggestions on how to effectively do that.

One of the days we were there me, Chad, and Chad's brother took a 10 mile hike near the ocean not too far from San Francisco. Chad and his brothers have been doing this hike the last few times we've come to visit. This time I made sure to invite myself. I'm glad I did. It was gorgeous.
We ended up here on a small cliff where this waterfall dropped onto the beach. It was way cool.
Family picture time.We then headed home and experienced a whirlwind of activities since my nephew was home from his mission and my brother Ben and his family were in town. All I know is that it was a week of REALLY late nights, games, tons of cousin time, sledding and of course food! What would the holidays be like without being totally glutenous. Not fun. I'll tell you that much. The only picture I took all week is this one, taken at the church during our family volleyball game.
Sisters in law Melissa, Kathy and Tasha and sister Courtney.

We did squeeze in a little friends time too. Here's Ethan and his buddy Logan with whom we also spent News Year's Eve. We even had a little slumber party to boot. Thanks Justin and Lori! Fun times!

Who needs a Snuggie?

...when you've got a robe? And who says you can't wear your robe over your clothes? This is my daily indoor winter attire: slipper socks and red robe. It's a winter MUST. Its cold in these parts! Sometimes Chad affectionately calls me "Mrs. Claus." What can I say, its my old fashioned Snuggie. Honestly I don't have too much to say other than I'm tired of looking at my last post and I feel like being a part of you bloggers again. So hows about a little random update:Ethan - at his school Christmas program. It was stinkin cute! This was the very same day I flooded my bathroom. I hopped in the shower and forgot to turn off the sink I was filling up. We're talking water everywhere - counter, floor, drawers. Yeah, not one of my most shining moments.
Ethan lost two teeth within the last month. I'm grateful. I was starting to wonder if he was going to keep his baby teeth for the rest of his life.Me and my "Happiness Hat." I love it and its a great conversation piece. (I like to give my guests that element of surprise when I open the door while wearing it). My nephew comes home from his mission on Wednesday. Yay! Primary keeps me busy. Work has been lovely since I haven't had to brave the single digit temperatures. The new Michael Buble song on my playlist. Soup club. Girls night out. Work party. Christmas stuff. Snow. My wonderful hubby. My smart and fun child. I'm happy. I'm blessed.

Six Years Til' I'm 40

Yeah I know, CRAZY. I can't believe I'm well into my 30s now. I feel like I just turned 30. Although, I have to say I kind of like being an even number again. (P.S. This post is a few weeks overdue).

This is how I spent my b-day...Looking at the beautiful view of San Francisco from the the tippy top of the Berkeley Hills.
And why was I there? Checking out the two houses where my mom and aunt were born and raised in Albany and Berkeley. What's cool is both the owners let complete strangers into their homes and gave us a tour. Then again, we don't really look like a scary bunch.

Courtney, Maddie, Romney (my cousin), me, mom and Aunt Caroline

We originally took this girls trip so Courtney could go to her twenty year reunion
Kim (our lovely host), Courtney and Shari

AND of course there was many a trip down memory lane seeing old friends, old faces, old places, my old houses, my old schools, the old ward, etc. I just love it there. Of course much has changed but I'll always have those memories of my childhood there, in that place, with those people.

Me and Shannon
Ann and I after our impromptu slumber party
Rebecca, me, Kim, Courtney, Carma
Some ladies in the ward that we just happened to run into. But don't worry I warned them they might end up on my blog.

Of course we couldn't go to the coast without actually going to the coast. Going to the beach was one of my mom's top priorities this trip.
Maddie's first time at the beach.
And then there's this duo (mom and Aunt Caroline). They're quite the fun traveling buddies. We always seemed to get lost going to and from somewhere. It was always a battle between the young and the old sisters of where we were going and which way to turn. Sometimes the young got us lost and sometimes the old got us lost. At one point these two, despite modern technology of cell phones, went MIA in downtown Alamo for a couple of hours until I found them as they were just finishing off their Thrifty ice cream cones. Mmmm...Double Chocolate Malted Crunch...its the best.Maria (our co-host for the weekend) and MaddieWith ALL the driving and stopping and getting in and out we did, Maddie did an AWESOME job.

Being the music lovers that Courtney and I are, somehow forgot ALL our music for this trip. Good thing we've got our lovely voices to grace everyone with :) - We even put Maddie to sleep once with our singing. Not sure if we should take that as a compliment or an insult. Of course there was a lot of chatting and some playing 'Would you rather...'. For some reason Courtney found it funny that I'd rather be the opening singer at a Gwen Stefani concert than go sky diving.And of course I missed these two a lot. But they were having their own adventures with soccer, basketball and a little father-son roadtrip.

Scary Is The New Cute

I remember the days when Ethan had no say (or at least very little say) in his Halloween costumes. Yeah, those good ol' days when I could dress him in any cute, cuddly costume of my choice.

Very Cute...

Still pretty cute...
Then there's scary...The. Skeleton. Ninja. (That's Ethan under that scary mask, by the way). Yeah I know. Scary.

Ahhhh. . .Back to cute. Knee high boots, floppy antenna and all.
Maddie's still in the cute and cuddly costume phase.